Spagyrics

[Michael]

The lovely people at Scarlet Imprint recently released, in a free pdf form, a collection of Paracelsus’s insults, translated by Frater Acher. It gives an incredible look at Paracelsus, far easier to hmm digest than the extant academic translations. Not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach it, a hilarious and insightful glimpse into a Genius of our past. It starts with a possible biological history, moves into historical context, then gets down to the nitty gritty, including graphic illustrations…………

“We can see the special significance of the written word for Paracelsus, in a social world in which he was by nature the inferior and interloper, writing offered him his own sovereign space. Here he remained uninterrupted, here he had space to express his radically innovative thoughts in original form and language, here he could defend himself with a sharp blade and style himself as the sole reigning medical saviour. How much of the creativity and harshness of his invectives was due to midnight dictation under the strong influence of alcohol, we will never know. For, especially in later life, both his drunkenness and his wild, raging insults became a constant.”

https://scarletimprint.com/journal/entering-paracelsus-treasure-house-of-insults

scarletimprint.com

Entering Paracelsus’ treasure house of insults | Scarlet Imprint

A scurrilous, scandalous and scatological short work from Frater Acher with exuberantly ribald illustrations by José Gabriel Alegría Sabogal – available to download for free.

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